Beijing - Day 1

What can you do with $50 in Beijing?

Would you believe if I tell you $50 is sufficient for a 5 days 4 nights land tour in Beijing, inclusive of accommodation and meals?

Also, you are not staying in some hostel but a 4 star hotel from a international hotel group chain?

Sounds too good to be true?

We have bought this amazing value for money Groupon deal by Travelstar.

I still remembered the disbelief on my China colleague’s faces when I told them about this deal.

They were so worried that we will get conned, locked up if we do not buy enough from the stores that the tour will bring us to, horror stories about the hotels that they will put us at. 

Some even volunteered to bring us around should the tour agency fail to pick us up.

Well, that really got us very worried, I must say.

A day before our trip, we received a tour confirmation of our tour contact in China, as well as, the hotel that we will be staying for 4 nights. As soon as I saw Ramada Beijing, I was so relieved. I am a firm believer of global brandname hotels. Well, Ramada may not be the Ritz Carlton of the world, but there has to be some minimum standard somewhere right?

Due to the flight schedule of Jetstar, we arrived in Beijing at 12.50am and we have arranged for airport transfer to bring us to the hotel directly.  

View from our hotel room

Our tour itinerary for the first day

We started out quite late (i.e. at 11am) due to the arrival of several groups that came in the morning.

Totally happy with this as we can catch a bit of sleep. By the time we settled down in our rooms, it was already 3am.

Our first stop is Peking Duck Lunch.

I must say the spread is quite decent, 9 dishes comprising of vegetables, fish, duck etc. And of course, a gigantic bowl of rice. 

Our second stop is at Tiananmen Square (which is the largest public square in the world). You can also view the monument for People Republic of China heroes, memorial hall for Chairman Mao Ze Dong, hall for general membership meeting and historical museum.

This is place is totally packed with tourists and vendors selling souvenirs and photo taking. If you want to buy souvenirs here, always remember to give them the exact amount as you never know if you receive any counterfeit notes back. 

Just right across the road from Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City. This is a World Heritage site  declared by UNESCO in 1987. This is the residence of the 24 Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The place is really huge and we spent several hours there visiting the various buildings. 

After that, we went to Donghuamen Night Market, where you get to try all the specialty food of China, including creepy crawlers. They have cocoons, centipede, scorpions, snakes etc. As this was the first day of the tour, I was a bit careful of what I eat. I regretted it as we did not manage to see another store after that. 

After that, we were given some time to explore the market and Wangfujing area. And guess what, we started trying out the local specialty. 

Abalone – It was a bit cold and hard

Lamb skewers – I do not usually fancy the lamb smell. But here, the lamb taste like normal meat. Its juicy and delicious. There are many stalls that sell lamb skewers and we got it from the stall that is the middle as it offers 5 sticks for RMB 10.

Chestnuts – This has to be the biggest and juiciest chestnut I ever had. We were a bit upset that they gave us slightly smaller ones and left the bigger ones on display.

Bingtang Hulu (Strawberry version) – This is so good. I was expecting the strawberry to be sour but it was sweet and juicy. 

Corn  - Do not really like this as this is quite hard. Heard the white ones are better. 

Yoghurt – This can be found everywhere. Available in hot and cold versions. It is thicker than your usual yoghurt. It cost RMB 4 but you are required to finish the yoghurt at the stall. 

After that, we went to Feng De Lou for dinner, where we have a variety of dishes served.